Charterhouse Production, organizers of Vodafone Ghana Music Awards will honour three Legendary artistes at the 20th edition of the award scheme.

The award scheme since its inception in 2000 will for the first time present a Lifetime Achievement Award to two gospel greats, Rev. Mary Ghansah and Prof. Kofi Abraham.

Highlife legend, J. A. Adofo will also be honoured by organizers for contribution to highlife music and the music industry as a whole in Ghana.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is adjudged by the Board as a Living Legend of Ghanaian Music whose works must have spanned generations. The artiste may not have released in the year under review.

1.Rev. Mary Ghansah

Rev. Mary Ghansah is a minister of the gospel who has inspired many through worship over the years. This year marks her 40th anniversary in music ministry with close to 20 albums to her credit in a career.

2. Prof. Kofi Abraham

Professor Kofi Abraham, has contributed immensely with regards to gospel music and the music industry as a whole in Ghana.

Kofi Abraham, who was given the title ‘Professor’ at Koforidua by a member of the Late President Hilla Limann’s administration and had led the True Gospel Band and the Ashanti Regional Music Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), received the award after performing two of his popular songs at the Ghana Police Band Centenary celebration.

He is better known by the old folks than the younger generation, thrilled the audience at the main auditorium of the National Theatre with the lyrics of some of his old songs that perfectly tell the story about basic principles of the Christian faith.

His contribution to gospel music goes back to 1970s and the indomitable role he played in the music industry opened the doors to the growth of gospel music in the country. He is reported to have described some of the contemporary gospel music as mere noise making,

3.Obuoba J. A. Adofo

Jackson Alfred Adofo – Obuoba J. A. Adofo a.k.a. The Black Chinese a.k.a. Chairman Muo, is the Leader of the City Boys Band of Ghana. He has been such an exciting performer and entertainer with many years experience, with over 30 albums to his credit.

The great composer, song writer and performer, known in real life as Abraham Kofi Boakye, received a crystal plague at the event, held under the theme: “Impacting lives through music”. His contribution to gospel music goes back to 1970s and the indomitable role he played in the music industry opened the doors to the growth of gospel music in the country.

For the past decade and over, Diana Hamilton has been busy; continuously producing hit songs, building a core following and most importantly, shifting our attention to Christ.

Interestingly, in all her endeavours over the years, she virtually goes unnoticed and without critical mention.

All that seemed to change last year coming into this year and for the first time in her illustrious career, she is getting noticed by the entire Nation – deservedly!

Diana had such a boisterous season last year, a refreshing phenomenon that has spilled over into this year, and thus far, the most-sought-after gospel artiste is her!

It came as little wonder when she got 4 nominations in the 20th edition of the VGMA;

Gospel Song of the year

Gospel Artiste of the year

Female Vocalist of the year

Album of the year

Without any shred of cynicism, she deserves at least 3 of the awards; Gospel Song, Gospel Artiste and Female Vocalist.

Gospel Song of the Year

‘Mo Ne Yo’ is arguably the biggest gospel song in that category. Scrap the fact that the fervor of the song spilled over into 2019, making it the biggest song currently. Just stick to its influence in 2018.

The enthusiasm and the reception with which music lovers offer that song, tells of its divine impact.

Diana Hamilton has been staging her self-produced concert, ‘Diana Hamilton Experience’ for years, a concert that takes her craft across the world, however, it was her stellar performance at the 2018 Adom Praiz that ticked the checklist for last year.

She is such a delight to watch on stage. Her composure,her interaction skill with the audience, interpretation of the songs, her eclectic vocal delivery and her ability to minister the word of God – are such exemplary virtues that almost makes her such a consummate artiste.

‘Gospel Artiste of the Year’ goes to her too.

Female Vocalist of the Year

Experience is not a criterion for winning the category but it counts if you have belted good notes and exhibited such splendid vocal skill for over a decade.

Diana’s voice comes with no confoundment; so pure, so pristine and so clear. She doesn’t overegg the pudding as singing almost is effortless to her.

She surely must take this one too!

It’s Simply Her Time!

They say Gospel artistes should not clamour for awards; that’s fine, but for her efforts in winning souls for Christ with such consistency, dedication and commitment, her reward is right here too; at the 20th edition of the awards – with 3 awards.

Ghana’s favourite choir, Harmonious Chorale is set to leave for Poland to participate in the International Festival of Orthodox Church Music “Hajnowka” in Bialystok Poland.

Since its inception in 1982, the event has hosted over 850 choirs from six continents.

The event which is scheduled to take place from 15 May 2019 to 20 May 2019 is organized under the patronage of the President of Poland as well as the Patronage of the Polish Minister of Culture and under the Artistic Patronage of Prof. K. Penderecki and the Patronage of the President of the City of Bialystok.

The aim of the festival is to present the great artistic and spiritual values of Orthodox Church music. It also creates opportunities for discussions, meetings, exchanges of experiences and forming new relationships between participants from different backgrounds and.

With a 38 member team made up of 32 singers, four instrumentalists, one sound engineer in the person of Dominic Ansa-Asare of Mido Productions and conductor by James Varrick Armaah, Harmonious Chorale is the only choir from Africa participating in this year’s event.

According to the Founder and Executive Director of the choir James Varrick Armaah, “we are excited about the opportunity to showcase Ghana’s talents to the world”.

He added that though Orthodox Church Music is largely not performed by the Harmonious Chorale, this event will serve as an opportunity to challenge the choir to move beyond its comfort zone, and also to uphold the confidence the organizers had in the choir for extending the invitation.

“This will also promote our brand of music as well as exerting Ghana’s influence in choral music at the world stage” he added.

After the festival week, Harmonious Chorale will stopover in Amsterdam before moving to hold some concerts in Germany. On Saturday 25th May, the choir will hold a concert at the Dusseldorf Ghana SDA Church from 16:00 – 19:00.

Also performing will be the Dusseldorf SDA Church Choir, Dusseldorf SDA Youth Choir and Oberhausen SDA Church Choir. This will be hosted by Pastor Isaac Kwabena Donkor (Church Pastor, Ghanaian SDA Churches in Aachen, Dusseldorf, Oberhausen and Frankfurt).

On Sunday, May 26, 2019, the choir will be hosted by Very Rev. Charles Kwesu Gyasi as they perform at the Dusseldorf Ghana Methodist Church from 11:00 to 14:30. The guest artiste is Akua Asantewaa.

In 2018 Harmonious Chorale represented Ghana at the World Choir Games in South Africa and was Champions of the World Choir Games (Category C28). It was also won three Gold Diplomas in three other categories.

Harmonious Chorale is the resident choir of Salt and Light Music Ministry headed by Rev. Dr Joyce Rosalind Aryee.

The event which took place at the Independence square saw in attendance, a mammoth crowd fired up for some original Ghanaian music from several topshots billed to perform.

However, the moment Akesse Brempong took to the stage with his dynamic band, Tribe of Judah, he artistically drew in the minds of the listeners with some worshipful bongo groove selection of songs.

He gradually built up momentum into his hit single, God is Working, and by the time he introduced the now trending Crazy Love Afropop Remix, the crowd couldn’t hold back their dance moves as they simultaneously swung to the music while reflecting on the lyrics of the song.

He mastered an interesting connection with the secular audience and hammered in the Gospel message as well, authenticating his attributed nickname, ‘AkesseTheLion’.

His outfit is set to release a new single titled, ‘Alright (BBF- Bibiara Beye Fine)’, on the 16th of May on all digital music stores.

The night saw other performances from the camp of Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale, Empress Gifty, AK Songstress, Sarkodie, among several others big names.

For quite a long time, gospel music was regarded as the most patronized genre of Ghanaian music in Ghana;but in the last couple of years, that unsubstantiated assertion seems to be fizzling out – www.entertainmentgh.com has noticed!

This portal , www.entertainmentgh.com has also observed the performance list for the VGMA in the last four years and the revelation is quite telling; that gospel, in the eyes of Charterhouse Ghana (organizers), is not really in ‘high demand’ as opined by stakeholders within the fraternity.

Diana Hamilton is the only gospel artiste that has been enlisted to perform at the main event of the 20th edition of the awards, scheduled for Saturday, May 18, 2019.

She shares the stage with other artistes including Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, and Samini.

There’s more; Kuami Eugene, KiDi, King Promise and Kwesi Arthur, with AMG Medikal in the mix. There’s still more – as Amakye Dede and Sydney complete the list of ‘local’ performers.

Now, here’s the trend that could raise some concern among gospel aficionados;

In 2018, Joe Mettle was the only gospel artiste to mount the stage. In 2017, a Nacee-led Gospel All-Stars occupied the only slot,while in 2016, Joe Mettle was the only gospel representative in a long list of other performers.

The attack is believed to have been carried out by a “group of some twenty to thirty armed men”, according to a security source.

“They burned down the church, then shops and a small restaurant before going to the health centre where they searched the premises and set fire to the head nurse’s vehicle”, Mr. Zongo said.

“The city is filled with panic. People are holed up at home. Shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town”.

The government of Burkina Faso said it was a “barbaric and cowardly attack”.

They called “to make the fight against terrorism both a collective and personal battle”.

After “failing to pit communities against each other with targeted killings of traditional chiefs and community leaders, terrorist groups are now attacking religion in an evil plot to divide us”, it said in a statement.

Burkina Faso has experienced an increase in violent activities linked to Islamist groups in recent months. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, violent incidents in the country linked to the local affiliates of al Qaeda and Daesh rose from 24 in 2017 to 136 in 2018. The attack comes two days after the release of four hostages in northern Burkina Faso by French special forces.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned Sunday’s attack and offered condolences as he cited “the sanctity of all places of worship”, according to a UN spokesman.

Guterres “urges all citizens of Burkina Faso to stand firmly with one another across communities and not to succumb to efforts to sow discord and breed further violence”.

The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, sent his condolences and added: “The genocide of Christians around the world must stop”.

“I have no doubt that with the presence of God in my life, He has helped me through a lot”, says the Tottenham Hotspur hero who scored the hat-trick to get the team in the Champions League final.

“God is wonderful”, the striker of Tottenham Hotspur said in an interview after what had been the best performance of his career. Lucas Moura scored a hat-trick (three goals in one match) against Ajax Amsterdam in the second leg of the semi-finals of the 2019 Champions league.

In the half time, the English team was 2-0 down (agg 3-0 after the defeat in the home game) and needed to score three goals. The Brazilian player became the hero as he scored the crucial goal in the 96th minute.

Tottenham Hotspue will play its first Champions League final ever on June 1. Just after the victory, Lucas Moura uploaded an Instagram post with the Bible verse: “For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1:37”

A post shared by Lucas Moura (@lucasmoura7) on May 8, 2019 at 3:27pm PDT

A STRONG FAITH IN JESUS

Lucas Moura is very open about his Christian faith. He says his football skills are “a talent God gave me”.

“Not only do I believe that it is a great gift from God and I believe that if he gave me this talent, this gift it is because he wants to use me in this environment, in the midst of football, He wants to fulfil some purpose of him through football”, he said in an interview with website xtheline.co.uk.

His performances as a football star are important, but it is not the most important. “No doubt, every player wants to be remembered for everything he did in the field, for the performances, for the titles, I also want this. However, I also want to be remembered mainly by my example as a person, I want to be remembered as a man of God, a person with good attitude, I believe that is what matters most, the character, the good example of a person who helps people to find God. I want to be remembered for that”.

Moura became a committed follower of Jesus Christ when he played in France with Paris Saint Germain (2013-2018).

“My whole family are practically Catholic so was I until I left Brazil in 2013, where I also considered myself a Catholic, but I did not practice, I did not attend mass, I did not do anything that made me different really, nothing”. But “after I arrived in France, I met people who came to work with me and in a very simple and very wise way they were showing me the Word of God, the Bible, showing me more about Jesus”, he told Cross The Line, a ministry focused on sports and faith.

“Coinciding with this at the time, I began to have difficulties, I was missing home, I was missing Brazil and it got me thinking a lot. I began to interest myself in what these people were saying to me and so I started to read the Bible and started to get the grasp God’s love for me. From there on, it was very fast and I began to understand the message and I fell in love with reading the Bible and I fell in love with the gospel of Christ”.

THE FINAL, AGAINST LIVERPOOL

Lucas Moura has been a Brazilian international 35 times. Tottenham Hotspur will face Liverpool FC in the 2019 Champions League final. The ‘Reds’ also had an outstanding performance as they beat FC Barcelona (agg-4-3). Liverpool’s manager Jürgen Klopp is also a committed Christian.